Sermon for January 14th 2018 - Can Any Good come out of a Sh@#hole?

Cartoon borrowed from The Naked Pastor:

          Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

          In a world with the president of the United States disparaging other nations by calling them SH@THOLES, this particular Bible verse gains profound and ironic meaning …

          Fr James Martin, an American theologian writes in response to President Trump:

"Why are we having all these people from sh#*hole countries come here?"
1.) They are our brothers and sisters in need.
2.) They are often fleeing war, violence or famine.
3.) There are children among them.
4.) The Old Testament asks us to care for the "alien."
5.) Jesus asks us to welcome the "stranger."
6.) Jesus asks us to love one another.
7.) We will be judged on how we care for the stranger.
8.) They come bringing hope.
9.) It's the right thing to do.
10.) That's who we are.
One more reason: Jesus himself was from a "sh#*hole" place. Nazareth was a minuscule town of 200 to 400 people, where people lived in small stone houses, and, say archaeologists, garbage (that is, s#*t) was dumped in the alleyways. "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" says Nathanael when he hears where the Messiah is from.
God, in other words, came from a "sh#*hole" place. And he pointedly asked us to welcome him whenever he appeared as a "stranger," or as one of our "least" brothers and sisters. That's why we have all these people come. Because Jesus came.

          And so, as people of faith, we MUST ask the modern equivalent to the question – What good can come from Nazareth ? – why are we having people from these sh@#hole countries comes here?, AND we must have the courage to FAITHFULLY face the answer even when it necessitates and demands of us that we stand against the powers and principalities of this world and offer a vision different from theirs.

          What good can come out of Nazareth? is a question that also resonates with the calendar when we consider that our southern neighbour is heading into Martin Luther King Day on Monday, and the blatant racist offensiveness of Trump’s reputed comment deepens in the face of that national day of observance that remembers and opposes that very kind of racism … a day that commemorates one who lost his life in the quest for equality and justice in the face of racism and hatred …

          So, as people of faith, we ask - what good can come out of Nazareth in the face of fear … bigotry … hatred and what pulls us away from living justly and with righteousness?

          Our reading from John, in addition to asking the tough question what good can come from Nazareth? Also challenges us to see the humanity of those who followed Jesus, and the humanity of Jesus himself as Jesus offers the invitation: follow me.

          From a scholarly point of view, in our reading from John this morning, we are clearly stumbling into a cliché like a Newfie joke directed towards the Galilean provinciality of Jesus and those who follow him … it is kind of like saying “that’s so Grey county …”

          But from the country hick overtones we immediately move to something bigger – something far greater – responding to the call Jesus offers and embodies …

          Call is fundamental to our Church. As a minister I do not have a contract, but a call. Starting out in ministry there is a discernment process that is to affirm our call to ministry. We toss the word around quite a lot – our readings today ALL speak of call in some capacity … Call is central to who we are and how we understand our faith … yet, I wonder how often we really reflect on the idea or concept of call …

          This week, I’ve been reading a book on mission mapping – essentially, it is the concept of understanding our community and our world – what lies around us, and our place and CALL within it – how we live and move and share our ministry in community. Mission mapping is about living out our call, and so our reading of Samuel’s call from God and that crucial response: “Speak Lord, your servant is listening” highlights the first step in the process of mission map making … being open to where and what God wants of us …

          The next step, is comprehending and understanding the context in which we live and move and have our ministry … for young Samuel it was a world in transition. A world filled with uncertainty and insecurity. A world awash in fear and anger and trepidation … for the disciples, it was a world under military occupation, a world that knew conflict and violence, a world that was awash in uncertainty, fear and many of the same things that fill our media today …

          So, the idea of call in today’s context speaks to how we will engage the world, and how the world will view and engage us … for Samuel, it was the role of prophet and priest – a powerful figure who chose and guided kings, a figure who had control and prestige and authority … for the disciples, it was the role of preacher and teacher – wandering itinerants who moved from town to town healing, teaching, preaching and being present … and for the modern era, in the face of leaders who speak hateful racist and sexist language, and who have clearly shown a preference of the rich and powerful, we are called to something more than quiet acquiescence. We are called to engage the world and the needs we see and feel and experience in real and practical ways.

          And that is where – speak Lord, your servant is listening gets prickly … not only is the historic figure of Jesus from one of those sh#@hole countries that Trump disparages, but his life embodies EVERYTHING he opposes … born to a mother who was too young and betrothed but not married … the texts tell us he was born a refugee in a town that was not his home … then the family fled into a foreign land fearing the ruler of the day and his erratic and violent temperament … then as an adult Jesus was very much not of the powered or moneyed class, but was poor and from a small almost insignificant rural village in a backwater corner of Israel that was itself a troublesome backwater province of the Roman Empire … we was the very definition of EVERYTHING Trump rages against today …

          And yet, as people of faith we are CALLED to follow …

          Follow into what is today uncharted territory – the familiar is fading, the comfortable is disappearing, and we are being CALLED to be the Church to a divided and troubled world … we are being called to bring light into the darkness and to care for those who truly come from the sh@#holes of the world …

          One of the commentaries for this week summarizes it well when it observes: “in these texts we meet a God who calls children, who enters into the dimly light places of our lives and speaks through the wisdom of the aging. In these texts the newly baptised Jesus, … walks into our lives, invites us to follow and heaven opens …” what follows is up to us …

          So with two simple words – follow me, Philp changes the direction of his life … he follows Jesus on the journey of ministry and all that follows. With two simple words echoing in his being Philip answers his own question:  what good comes out of Nazareth?

          Healings … teachings … the revelations of the holy revealed and embodied in Christ … a transformation of the world through this amazing gift of love, peace, hope, joy, grace and faith …

          If we take seriously our call to faith the ten tenets laid out by Fr Martin are simply part of our journey as followers and disciples …

1.) They are our brothers and sisters in need.
2.) They are often fleeing war, violence or famine.
3.) There are children among them.
4.) The Old Testament asks us to care for the "alien."
5.) Jesus asks us to welcome the "stranger."
6.) Jesus asks us to love one another.
7.) We will be judged on how we care for the stranger.
8.) They come bringing hope.
9.) It's the right thing to do.
10.) That's who we are.

          Our faith was born in a true sh@#hole … a borrowed stable behind an inn … a baby born to a young mother and a refugee father … and they were semitic – siblings to today’s Arabic nations … EVERYTHING about our origins as a Church – as a people of faith – stands opposed to the drivel that oozes out of Trump’s mouth …

          if we dare to live our faithful calling we will find ourselves challenged and stretched to BE present to the hurt in the world, and to offer a safe refuge to those that are hurting, those who are lost, those who are broken, those who are longing for home … instead of building walls and division, we will open doors, and expand tables and dare to welcome in our brothers and sisters with open arms, open hearts, and open minds …

          Jesus came as one of the least of these our sisters and brothers, and if we are to welcome him, we MUST dare to welcome them as well … In the face of the likes of Trump, we need to hear instead the voice of the one born in a sh@#hole who CALLS us saying:

          (Matthew 25:31-46)

          Come, we have the opportunity to inherit AND embody the kingdom here and in the sh@#holes of the world … it is our CALLING, and our response is to follow

          … may it be so … thanks be to God, let us pray … 

The reason for the season ... community without boundaries ... Advent 4

          In his book A Bigger Table, John Pavlovitz describes a meeting he had while being a youth pastor in Raleigh NC with his lead senior pastor – he was sharing his frustrations of ministry amongst students and young people in the community, and the lack of support for the work, or for any kind of follow up with the young men and women he was ministering among.

          John noted that the people he was working with were very inwardly focused and he was looking for ideas to draw them out of themselves, and their studies and their lives on campus. The senior pastor suggested more evangelical events – while also noting that the social justice thing that John was deeply enmeshed in, was ‘all well and good, but it wasn’t saving anyone’ … John paused then directed the conversation to stories of pastoral care he and those with him in the ministry were about … he noted dysfunction, depression, self-harm, addiction and the deep deep hurt experienced and endured by many of those he was living and working amongst. He said, they need MORE care and MORE community, NOT the slick entertainment that an evangelical event represents.

          The senior pastor noted – “John, I have zero interest in ministering people …”

          John summarizes the exchange by noting the often the Church has a burning desire to ‘get people saved’ and is generally apathetic to them beyond that. He goes on to note that “we become fixated on people’s eternal souls but don’t give much of a damn about the rest of their earthly lives. We convince ourselves that salvation is grasped on in an altar call and not in the millions of ordinary moments where we live and breathe with an awareness of the presence of God.”

          The challenge becomes – how to care for the person not just their souls … in the United Church, the tradition of altar calls and evangelical events has fallen by the way side while schools, hospitals, carehomes, apartment complexes, drop in centres, homeless shelters and dozens of street level ministries that care for the person have moved to the fore, as we’ve embraced and lived the social justice thing … perhaps at our peril … putting our emphasis on the social justice thing, and letting our theological reflection slide a little bit too much …

          SO? How do we find the balance? How do we minister to the person without losing our focus on the awareness of the presence of God? How do we, on our Advent journey embrace the notion of LOVE?

          This morning, I am using Pavlovitz quite a bit, because his words hit the struggles we face as a church and a community – he addresses the challenge of how do we live our faith and move forward? How do we make a difference with the limited resources we have, and with the challenges we face?

          Pavlovitz notes that of the many stories he hears from former Church members and faith refugees from traditional churches the most common is the realization that their earlier inclusion was highly conditional and their involvement was little more than decorative. When push came to shove and life got messy and THEY needed the Church they were cast out or simply forgotten. The story of being greeted warmly in the front door, only to be later ushered out the back door or tossed out all together is far too common.

          I had a conversation with a local person on Friday who described that exact scenario … he said that he was busy in his community with all kinds of activities and assistance both to and from local congregations. He regarded the local ministers and pastors as friends, BUT when his marriage fell apart and his life came unglued he sought out the churches for help … he phoned, knocked on doors and sent emails … and … never … heard … back.

          His life was messy and the churches were suddenly too busy … he was welcome when he was helping, but overlooked when he needed help.

          I’ve heard variations on that theme over and over … I have a shelf full of books upstairs that are studies of that story over and over and over … from across North America … Canadian researcher and scholar Reginald Bibby has made an entire career out of research into Churches across North America and trying to predict and assist trends and changes and so on … the study of WHY? People leave churches is broad and deep and rich … and by and large within the Church we ignore it.

          So, how do we wrestle with the precipitous decline we are witnessing AND experiencing, and what can we do about it?

          It starts here (Baby Jesus) … over the last three weeks of our Advent journey, we have explored the themes John Pavlovitz lays out as we’ve peopled the Nativity set … week one, Mary and Joseph arrived and we wrestled with the idea of radical hospitality finding room for everyone in the stable, and at the table … week two, the shepherds came and we discussed Total Authenticity – being wholly ourselves before God and with each other … then last week, week three the Magi came and we talked about the joy that comes with total diversity … and today, we’ve been listening to Pavlovitz’s reflections on building and being an Agenda Free Community, and the last figure to be put in the stable is the star of the show – the wee babe named Jesus … Jesus IS the harbinger of an Agenda Free Community.

          He is here for ALL people, not just for some. His love is unconditional and his gift of Grace is open for ALL not just a select few. His message and ministry is about experiencing and envisioning the Holy in new and radical ways – radical in the full sense of the word – not something new, but in a return to the foundations and basics of that word … experiencing and living the Holy without all of the detritus that has been left by generations and generations of well intentioned people … the things and habits that get in the way of experiencing the fullness of God and the Holy in our world.

          And so, we place the baby Jesus in the Nativity scene, and in song and story and tradition, we acknowledge the very presence of God in the manger – all of the pretense and detritus stripped away … in THIS moment we stand before the HOLY … and we have the ability to embrace transformative change that comes with awareness of the presence of God.

          And it all starts with a baby … Anne Weems gets in when she writes: 

(unexpected – pg 45 Kneeling in Bethlehem by Ann Weems)

          Whoever expected a Baby? Yet, here we are on the eve of the festival the Church says acknowledges his birth … but it is the grown Jesus that calls us to the transformative experience as a community and as individuals.

          And that comes when we step beyond the layers of interpretation and modification that have so coloured Jesus and his earthly life, and we stand before the baby now grown …

          We have so distilled the sprawling experience of lifelong faith down to one tiny, measurable moment that we’ve forgotten how much living alongside people Jesus actually did. We wrongly imagine the Gospel stories as one continual thirty three year tent revival, a never ending rock-show crusade, and we miss the reality that the pages of the story of Jesus are filled with quiet conversations; with walks in the field, with hands upon weary shoulders, with loving meals around the table. We forget the wounds that were mended, the feet that were washed, the bread that was broken. These were as real and powerful and life altering as any tearful worship service prayer. Yes, Jesus preached on the hillside and in the towns and in the synagogues, but if that were all he did, we’d have a far shorter New Testament. He seemed to have as much reverence for the table as he did for the Tabernacle …

          So, we begin by rebuilding community – not at the altar, not before the pulpit … but at table.

          Think about our Christmas celebrations this year (and every year) what is the important part? Gathering with friends and family and EATING … gathering at table.

          The trees, the lights, the tinsel and the presents are part of the seasonal festivities, but it is the MEALS … the gatherings … the sitting down at table that are important and central.

          SO, what if … what if, we reclaim the table as our focus.

          What if, instead of worrying about the liturgy, the building, the STUFF – we instead worry about the people … each other … our neighbours … the folks who come looking for community.

          And it is happening all over the world – Church communities are forming in unexpected and wonderful new ways: people who are starving for real and authentic community are finding it online, in homes, in social gatherings – they are creating community themselves by taking the best of religious traditions and avoiding the rest, and building gatherings where people can gather and stand fully in the presence of the Holy together.

          They are literally SITTING DOWN AT TABLE with one another.

          At Table, together - holding to values of love, support, belonging and respect … values kind of like Hope, Peace, Joy and LOVE that we marked each week in our Advent Journey … the bottom line is – when we LIVE the values we speak, when we are committed and honest and authentic in our faith and living and sharing the things that we say – the rest is truly easy … we gather as community at table … it can be here, it can be in our kitchen, it can be in a café or diner, or it can be at a picnic table by the lake … but when we gather at table we build a community based on conversation and relationship NOT budgets and theologies and rituals …

          And when we begin to reform our communities at table we have an opportunity to be wholly present to the baby this season is about … for, at table Jesus had wisdom to share, hard words to give, and purpose to call people to, but more than that he had their humanity to affirm. Jesus allowed them the dignity of being seen and heard and known. Imagine what it would look like if we oriented ourselves around THAT – if we had no other agenda than walking alongside people sharing the view of God from where each of us stand, not needing them to see what we see, or believe what we believe, but to encounter Jesus in our very flesh. The baby calls us to Table …

                                       May it be so … Thanks be to God … let us pray …